NYSPI Faculty Related Links

Core Curriculum

A central aspect of the Residency Training Program is the core curriculum. Courses are held on a daily basis throughout the PGY 2 and PGY 3 years, and three days a week in the PGY 4 year. These courses are integrated with the residents' clinical activities and are sequenced to correspond to the growth of clinical skills. Didactic courses provide the scientific and conceptual basis for practice, as well as a time to consider complex treatment issues away from the pressure of immediate clinical decision making.

In addition to these courses, there are many didactic sessions that are held on a specific teaching service, attended only by residents while they are on that service. For example there is a course on the cognitive therapy of eating disorders offered to residents while they rotate on the inpatient unit where bulimic and anorexic patients are hospitalized. Similarly, PGY 1 residents attend unit-based courses while doing psychiatry rotations. Finally, there are some special seminars held for all residents, and these are described at the end of this section.

Basic/Clinical Neuroscience - Dr. Joshua Gordon - 12 sessions - A review of neuroanatomy with a focus on the neural systems of direct relevance to psychiatric disease is presented as well as didactics on neuroimaging techniques and their clinical relevance.

Behavior Therapy - Dr. Gordon Ball -2 sessions - This is a critical overview of behavior therapy linking current research advances to specific clinical strategies. Residents learn how to do a behavioral assessment and devise a treatment plan. Some of the specific techniques taught are relaxation methods, desensitization, and habit control.
Child Development - Dr. Elisabeth Guthrie - 10 sessions - Normative child development is the focus of this three month course. Physical and neurological growth, attachment, cognition, language acquisition and psychosocial maturation are discussed in the context of current and historical theories.

Community Care for Severe Mental Illness - Dr. Stephanie LeMelle - 6 sessions - These are the first in a series of lectures that cover topics related to the care of people with severe mental illness in community settings. Lectures include topics related to the concept of recovery as it applies to housing, benefits, vocational rehabilitation and systems of outpatient treatment.

Consultation Liaison - Dr. Peter Shapiro - 4 sessions - Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry deals primarily with the understanding and treatment of psychiatric problems in patients with other medical problems. The course will focus on four key topics that are important because of their acuity and generalizability: agitation, alcohol and sedative withdrawal syndromes, capacity to make decisions, and psychotherapy with the medically ill.
Cultural Formulation - Dr. Roberto Lewis-Fernandez - 9 sessions - This is an introduction to cross cultural psychiatry. Topics covered include impact of language on evaluation and treatment, culture-specific syndromes, folk belief systems, and other issues that reflect the impact of culture on one's identity and on psychiatric illness. During the course, each resident writes up a cultural formulation on one of their patients which is discussed in class.

Diagnostic Case Formulation - Dr. Deborah Cabaniss - 18 sessions - This course introduces residents to assessment of patients for psychotherapy and to the written case formulation. Each week, one resident prepares a written formulation of his/her long-term psychotherapy case and distributes this to the class. In the Monday class, Dr. Cabaniss interviews the patient and the class discusses the interview. In the Thursday class, the group reviews the data from the written formulation, interview, and enhanced assessment battery (conducted prior to the conference) to discuss diagnostic and treatment issues.

Evidence Based Medicine and Journal Club - Dr. Joanna Steinglass - 10 sessions -In this series of seminars residents learn to critically review the literature and develop skills in practice-based learning.

Introduction to Global Mental Health - Dr. Milton Wainberg - 1 session - More than 75% of those with mental disorders in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) do not receive care despite substantial disability. Where treatment is provided, it frequently is below minimum standards and often lacks respect for human rights. This course will introduce current research approaches to decreasing the treatment gap in LMIC.

Legal Issues & Ethics in Psychiatry - Drs. David Strauss, David Lowenthal & Paul Appelbaum -6 sessions - This course provides an overview of legal issues as they relate to the practice of psychiatry. Included are discussions of civil commitment (including outpatient commitment), informed consent, decision-making competence, and the duty to protect potential victims of patients' violence. Principles underlying the evolution of the legal framework for psychiatric practice are emphasized.
Resource Manager - Dr. Melissa Arbuckle - 3 sessions - According to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), residents must “Practice cost-effective health care and resource allocation that does not compromise quality of care.” This course is aimed to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes critical to providing high-value, cost-effective care within psychiatry.

Measurement Based Care - Dr. Melissa Arbuckle - 1 session - This course introduces residents to the use of standardized assessment tools that can aid in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders.

Night Float Case Conference – Dr. Claire Holderness –1 session –Provides residents the opportunity to present challenging cases they have cared for while night float, and to discuss issues such as psychopharmacology in the acute inpatient setting, safety, assessing and managing the interplay between medical and psychological issues, working as part of an interdisciplinary team, and the handoff of information."

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy - Dr. Deborah Cabaniss - 8 sessions - This course prepares residents for treating their first patients with psychodynamic psychotherapy, which they begin doing in the fall of their PGY-II year. Residents learn how to begin the treatment, set the frame, establish a therapeutic alliance, and use basic psychodynamic interventions.

Psychological Testing - Dr. Fern Leventhal - 5 sessions - Aspects of assessment of intelligence and cognitive functioning are discussed with attention paid to profiles of neuropsychological functioning in various psychiatric disorders.
Schizophrenia and Related Disorders - Dr. Tom Smith - 10 sessions - Dimensions of schizophrenia are reviewed in this course: symptomatology, diagnosis, prognosis and the subjective experience, as well as the history and development of psychotic disorder classification. In addition, epidemiological and etiological studies, forensic and family studies, and the various treatment approaches are discussed. Particular attention is paid to current biological theories of both disease process and treatment.

Statistics - Dr. Sean Luo - 4 sessions - The purpose of this course is to provide a basic introduction to the statistical approaches that are commonly used in clinical and epidemiological research. The emphasis is on understanding which tests should be used to answer typical questions (e.g., a randomized clinical trial), rather than on the mechanics of how to do the calculations for those tests.
Initial Patient Interview - Dr. Steven Hyler - 2 sessions -This course focuses on conducting an efficient diagnostic interview. Each PGY-2 resident later has the opportunity to conduct an interview, present the case, discuss their formulation and treatment plan and receive a detailed critique.
Substance Abuse - Dr. Frances Levin - 6 sessions - This course provides an overview of the major types of addiction, patterns of intoxication and withdrawal, and an introduction to treatment.

Teaching Medical Students - Drs. Janis Cutler and Anand Desai - 1 session - Provides residents with an introduction to teaching medical students psychiatry while rotating through the inpatient units.